Like many GMs, I don't bother to use the Critical Hit system for large numbers of expendable goons for easier bookkeeping. However, that system makes talents that increase critical damage entirely useless. Does anyone use house rules to make a solution for this? I was considering adding half of the additional critical damage to normal damage, but that would make those same weapons seem less powerful against those targets that deserve more sophisticated consideration for their wounds.

Maybe another way of "balancing" that is to increase the Crit Damage the Talents provide so that when they ARE useful, they become more powerful. I bought Crippling Strike, but I'm sure that 90% of the time, it's totally useless because my GM just declares the enemies dead at 0 wounds. However, when it counts, that +1d5-1 crit damage is the difference between winded and eviscerated.

If I were to improve them, might extend something like Tearing to the Crippling Strike. That could be pretty powerful... Not sure. otherwise, you could just rule that the Talents now just provides a +1 to all dmg and that's that.

One could rule that the goons die if they have as much wounds left as the char would do in additional damage by such talents.
For example char 1 hits a goon and deals enough damage to reduce him to 5 wounds. He could not do 5 more damage by crit damage talents so the goon stays at 5 wounds.

Char 2 hits the same goon, rolls low on damage and (after Armour and TB) only inflicts 1 wound. But as the target has only 4 wounds left he rolls his d5-1 for crippling strike, comes up with a 5, which with the -1 is enough to reduce the goon to 0. The goon dies.

But for ease of play I would combine this houserule with a fixed amount of damage instead of d5-1.